Concept: Saddam ~ Noriega

[Occhidiangela]

Given that the "Jeffersonian Experiment" was an excersize in self governance, isn't the (involuntary) export of that system a contradiction in terms?

No, take a slightly closer look at it. The battles of 'the better idea' and the 'need for it spread' has been going on for long since before the US was formed. Consider both the Enlightenment and the Reformation, both 'better ideas' that 'needed to be spread' as seen by some early adherents, or look to Islam or Christianity for that matter. Spread the better idea since it makes you better than you can be now. See also how Marxism/Communism, and its spreading as the reputed 'better idea' of its time.

When you consider that Jefferson et al thought, from a practical political perspective, that their model was the best one yet and that everyone should try it, as do most 'close to the edge' thinkers, it is logically consistent that they felt that their 'better idea' needed to be exported and so create fewer kingdoms, the enemy of representative governance, and more 'places like ours' where people in general would be more emancipated vis a vis the world order that it was juxtaposed with: autocratic rule. Now, the how of spreading, either by the idea's own inherent 'rightness' or with an assist from other elements of international interaction, would doubtless be debated.

Consider some of the rhetoric of why self governanace is right, (see the Declaration for some of the thoughts that underlie that). The idea is that all peoples should be 'governed by consent of the governed' since governments are instituted among men for some assumed beneficient reasons. In that light, the spreading of not just 'the idea,' but the practical application of the idea fits Jeffersons idea of 'what should be' versus 'what is.' He and others felt that what should be was people not being governed by kings and popes, but rather by the representative model, or variations on it, that has slowly gained currency, in various forms, over the past two or three hundred years.

So no, not a contradiction. It need not be exported via the muzzle of a gun, if that is what your question is implying. That the idea should spread. ferment and grow in new fields still meets the mechanics of export.

On the other hand, there is always the problem of selling an idea to someone on the grounds of "Hey, I am telling you this is for your own good, you really need to change XXXXXX." That dog won't always hunt, and packaging in that case is Everything.